Chinese for Children: Better Chinese

We end up previewing a number of “Chinese for Children”
resources at our house … but end up abandoning most
of them quickly. There is some pretty lame stuff out there,
unfortunately.

One that seems to hold my daughters’ attention well,
however–and that is probably going to earn my personal
“stamp of approval”–is betterchinese.com.

Note:
This recommendation is based on previewing the demo resources
at betterchinese.com.
We haven’t tried their paid services, and have no relationship
with the site.

betterchinese.com
divides into resources into two categories, “Lessons”
and “Stories,” targets “Beginner,”
“Intermediate,” and “Advanced” levels,
and uses animated and sometimes “annotated” stories
to expose children to the Chinese language.

While viewing their demo stories, I have to laugh at unintentionally
funny things like having the same adult male voice actor providing
voiceover for all male characters, including young children.
Picture:

The younger set, of course, isn’t terribly distracted
by such things, and without getting into scientific analysis,
I’ll say that the methodology in the animations is fairly
on target: even my two-year old was able to answer questions
in English and Chinese about what she’d just seen in
the animated stories. It’s not just “eye candy,”
in other words.

The site also includes a number of free extras, such as coloring
pages, games, e-cards, and desktop wallpaper, as well as other
resources for sale (storybooks, shirts, and so on).

My request, however, for the makers of the site (and
of so many Chinese sites I’ve encountered): please don’t
open links to pages on your own site in new browser windows.
I hate having 23 1/2 open browser windows after visiting just
one site.

Otherwise, even though we’ve only taken advantage of
the free and demo resources, I think betterchinese.com
is a site anyone wanting to help children learn Chinese will
want to explore more.

Their rates are listed currently as follows, though their
free resources will keep you busy for awhile while you evaluate
their offerings: